Religion is a response to people’s struggles with life. If humans had no struggle, they would have no reason to pursue a spiritual path. Religion means “to link back, rebind”. So religions bond people to their past, present, and future with their belief systems. Just believing strongly in something or someone doesn’t make it a religion. For a religion you must have followers, sacred texts or moral codes, and rituals of sum kind. There is also more to a religion than believing in God or praying to a God. Buddhism for example. They believe man is a master of himself and doesn’t need prayers to ask for anything. Every person makes life what they make of it. Prayers doesn’t bring them to enlightenment. Doing good, purifying your mind and obtaining from evil gets you there. They experience enlightenment, or in my opinion, “religious feelings”.
Someone’s world view and idea of God helps them fit into their own place in this world. It gives them meaning and significance. Faith gives them security. One’s faith in their God is based on their beliefs about their God. For Monotheist, struggles and suffering (which are inevitable) are a way their God brings them through the pain. Their faith in their God will heal their suffering. God gave people freedom to choose. Even freedom to choose wrong. This is free will. We can rewritten our own fate after making bad choices. “Making sense of our own chaotic lives.” (Kushner 1981, 51) Life gives us struggles but God will guide us because he is by our side. So the inevitable question of freewill is, predetermined. How much of our own plan do we get to decide?
So for one to say “deep down all religions are the same” is wrong to me. I once thought this to be true. Generally speaking all religions have a core concept of the “Golden rule and Prayer”. I used a car as my example. There are many different types, colors, and shapes of cars but they are all used in the same way. To get us from point A to point B. Upon learning about...